The History of Troll Dolls

The Humble beginning of the troll dolls

 Troll dolls were invented by a man named Thomas Dam. He was born May 15th, 1912 in a small village in Denmark. When Thomas was a boy he and his fellow peers would tell stories about the trolls. As Thomas grew up into adulthood he would become a woodcarver, a Bricklayer, and a fisherman. By the 1940s, Thomas Dam had his own life as a baker and had two kids. After World War II he lost his job and his family fell into poverty. Not being able to buy his daughter a present on her birthday, he ended up taking his old skills back into work and carving her the first Troll. At first it didn't have a name but then he decided on naming it “the troll doll” after the stories from his childhood. 

After Thomas's Dan's daughter showed off the troll doll, everyone wanted it in the small town of Denmark. Everyone fell in love with it. Even though he was working, he spent his mornings and evenings and most of his free time making the troll dolls. After some encouragement by his wife, he ended up starting to sell the trolls door to door and then in local stores. Soon local bigger department stores wanted to start selling his trolls in their store. The first Called “AlBorg” was the first store to put a display of the troll dolls in stores. 

Expanding internationally 

In 1962 Troll dolls became popular worldwide and globally successful. The original trolls mostly had neutral tones and not super bright crazy colors like you would imagine they would today. By autumn in 1963 Trolls became a worldwide success. They were the must-have toys in all of America. Also in 1963, Betty Miller was the first woman to fly across the Pacific Ocean completely solo. She brought a troll doll with her on her journey for good luck, and the troll actually did bring her luck, because she made it around the Pacific Ocean. But by this time, about 38,000 trolls were being sold Daily. About two troll dolls were sold every single second. Soon after that, the trolls hit sales of 2 million a year. In 1964, troll dolls outsold the best selling toys- still to this day- Barbie. 

In 1965, Thomas was really struggling with keeping copyright away from people, but they figured out that their copyright in America did not work. This meant that the troll dolls were completely free to everyone and in the public domain. This also meant that anyone could use their design at any time. This led for the Troll dolls to lose a ton of money because of their small error in copyright. The struggle with American copyright with the Troll doll company would not end until the 1990’s. Thomas Dam was so sick of fighting it, that he would draw all of his troll dolls from the American Market In the 1970s, but continue to sell them in different parts of the world. By the end of the '70s the troll doll craze was basically over for now.

The Revival of the trolls in the 90s 

In 1983, a couple named Eva and Steven Stark Arranged of meeting with Thomas to have trolls start being imported back into America. Trolls have not been seen in America since the seventies, so this will be a new thing. Thomas agreed, and they were named the NorfinTroll dolls. Before Northern bought the doll company, Russell tried making the trolls back in the 70s, but stopped and then decided to start making them again in the 90s Just so they could be a competitor with North Central's. The main difference between the North End and the Russell trolls is all the Russells have the exact same face but with many different unique outfits, compared to the north. By the time trolls started getting popular again, all the kids from the 1960s were adults now, and they felt nostalgic so they started showing their own kids them.

Once again troll dolls became massive, huge, exciting, and amazing again.. 

But the original Northern ended up losing to the Russell, and the Russell ended up taking over. Now, most of the time when you see a troll doll, it will be a Russell brand.